The Use of Arts in Awareness & Prevention of Eating Disorders

The Use of Arts In Awareness & Prevention of Eating Disorders

A 3-part series by Robyn Hussa Farrell, Founder and CEO of Mental Fitness

This three-part series will outline how we went from bringing an award winning rock musical around the country to producing evidence-based online educational tools, to opening an “arts prevention center” to bring awareness, intervention and primary prevention programs to children and families.

First, A Little History

In 2005 I produced a Jonathan Larson award-winning rock musical in NYC that led to many of my friends seeking treatment for addictions, eating disorders and many other mental health conditions. The musical was called NORMAL and we learned that the “safety” of an award-winning musical performance served as a terrific catalyst for merging audiences with clinical psychologists and licensed therapists to assist people into treatment. The “talk back” model is nothing new in the world of theatre, but in terms of managing a greatly stigmatized and misunderstood illness such as mental health[1], it was incredible to see people literally standing up after a performance of NORMAL to claim their illness and to get the help they so deserved.

Working closely with certified eating disorders specialists and educators, we began developing a curriculum that contained resources and handouts to accompany the live musical. The process of creating a safe space, evidence-based curriculum, and highly engaging art piece resulted in individuals coming forward to seek treatment for mental health complications. To date, more than 2000 people have came forward to seek treatment*[2] after experiencing the NORMAL THE MUSICAL program.

Eventually we toured it throughout the country to arts, medical and educational conferences. In each community we learned that EVERY school had kids struggling with myriad of mental illnesses that weren’t being addressed.

Over the course of 8 years, we collected 23 binders filled with post show evaluations. The results of an analysis of these evaluations follow.

The insights learned along the way:

– EVERY school has issues of mental health that they aren’t able to manage. Today, prior to any training that we hold (whether it is “prevention-focused” or “awareness / intervention-focused”) we know that we need to ask the counselors and psychology team in a school what “THE” issue is. The key is to ask the questions of the faculty & staff prior to holding trainings, in order to assess the specific needs of the school and connect them to appropriate support PRIOR to leading ANY training.

– If we wanted to focus on prevention, we were “too late” by the time kids got to middle and high school. We have to start in elementary school.

– Many public schools do not know the Spanish speaking, public health, or Medicaid resources that are available, or how to go about connecting to them. Our evidence-based “tiered trainings” now assist in connecting these important dots.

– It was clear that faculty, staff, and coaches were not informed about the latest facts and needed separate instruction. In fact, our findings led to creating a program called THINK.EAT.PLAY featuring a national advisory board with expertise in the female athlete triad, sports dietetics and prevention. Our team met and developed surveys for coaches. These will be outlined in the next post!

– During one presentation at an urban middle school in Milwaukee, more than 45 children asked for a “private” session with a clinical psychologist. We broke into a separate room and let them talk about all of the things that cause them stress – the overwhelming message over the course of the last 8 years is that kids are stressed out and need an outlet.

– Administrators and educators wanted to hear the facts straight from the mouths of experts. We needed to find a way to bring their research to schools, yet keep things interesting and engaging. This is what led to our filming national researchers from multiple areas of science and incorporating award-winning arts (more about this in our second segment).

My own journey bringing this rock musical to schools led me to see that we have to provide education about the shared risk and protective factors for eating disorders much earlier – in the safest and most structured way possible. It was in direct response to this work that we developed our “Tiered” training model in schools, which we will outline more in our next segment.

Part two of this series will be featured in our April e-newsletter and can be found by clicking here. Part three can be found by clicking here.

About the author:

ROBYN HUSSA FARRELL is an award-winning New York producer and performer, educator and author. She is co-Adaptor of the Jonathan Larson award-winning musical, NORMAL, which she has been producing and performing in for 7 years to educate about mental fitness in schools … and which is the inspiration for forming mentalfitness, inc. (formerly called NORMAL In Schools). As a writer, she re-imagined and is Author/Editor of the award-winning body image blog site WeAreTheRealDeal.com, she is Author of the books Healthy Selfitude and Meditation & Mindfulness For Eating Disorder Recovery and has provided a chapter in a new book by Carolyn Costin about yoga for recovery which will be published in 2016 by Routledge.

For years Robyn has also been co-creating and producing documentary films with her husband Tim Farrell, through their production company whitelephant. Some of the documentary films she has co-directed; include, Speaking Out About Ed and ED 101 – both on sale at Gurze publications, and both are the result of her interviewing national experts in the fields of neurobiology, eating disorders, obesity and nutrition. Their next documentary film is Beneath The Floorboards and one on their journey with NORMAL THE MUSICAL. Hussa Farrell is also responsible for creating and implementing the more than 25 award-winning mentalfitness programs that serve as content to more than 20 national nonprofits, corporations and that are created in collaboration with more than 50 national researchers in medicine, nutrition, mental health and wellness. She recently co-created the ThinkEatPlay program to optimize health in athletes and created the BE stress-management and wellness program for educators which are being piloted in districts throughout the country.

Hussa Farrell also has collaborated as investigator and author on several research publications. Her work in this area is in collaboration with more than 50 researchers; including those from Harvard School of Public Health, UNC Chapel Hill, Coastal Carolina University, MUSC and others.

In 2014, Hussa Farrell and her husband launched Resiliency Technologies to provide mental health prevention tools to corporations. More information is available at BResilient.co.

For her work creating mentalfitness, inc. and its programs and initiatives, Robyn received the 2014 Peace Award from Converse College Westgate Family Therapy and 2010 Champion in Women’s Health award from Wisconsin First Lady, Ms. Sue Ann Thompson.

Prior to her work with mentalfitness, inc., Robyn was co-Founder of the award winning New York theatre company, Transport Group. During her six year tenure as Founding Executive Director, the company won of the 2007 Drama Desk award for the company’s breadth of vision and challenging productions and more than 20 nominations from Drama Desk, Obie and others.

For Transport Group, Robyn produced and performed in: Our Town, Requiem for William; Michael John LaChiusa’s First Lady Suite (2003 Drama Desk Award nomination); The Audience (a collaborative effort between more than 100 artists, composers and writers (2004 Drama Desk Award nomination)); nor.mal: the musical; and cul-de-sac by John Cariani. Transport Group continues to thrive in the West Village of Manhattan. Please visit them at TransportGroup.org.

Robyn holds an MFA-Acting from the University of Virginia, is a member of AEA, AFTRA/SAG, the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), The International Association for Eating Disorders Professionals (IAEDP), Women In Film and Television (NYWIFT), and is an E-RYT Certified Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance. She and her husband recently relocated to Spartanburg, SC where she is a proud board member of the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra.